Statue of Ford may get spot in Rotunda

Saturday, June 23, 2007

By Ted RoelofsGrand Rapids Press

Move aside, Zachariah Chandler.

It appears that a likeness of President Gerald R. Ford is
destined to take your place of honor on Capitol Hill.

A move is afoot to replace a statue of Chandler with one of
Ford that would rest in the Capitol Rotunda. If approved by
Michigan legislators, that would evict Chandler's
8-foot marble figure and send it somewhere in Michigan.

"I think it is absolutely a wonderful idea," said
state Sen. Bill Hardiman, R-Kentwood.

"We say how much President Ford was honored by the
world and we in Michigan certainly honored him."

Hardiman plans to introduce a resolution next week to
approve the statue, the cost of which is to be borne by the
Gerald R. Ford Foundation.

Final design approval rests with Congress.

U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Grand Rapids, said he has been
working to honor Ford with a statue since his death Dec. 26.

"It would certainly be nice to have him installed while
Betty Ford was still able to view it," Ehlers said of
the former first lady.

So who was Chandler, you might ask?

While the name is obscure to many, history buffs know he was
mayor of Detroit, a prominent abolitionist, four-term U.S.
senator and secretary of the interior under President
Ulysses Grant.

Chandler is remembered for his 1861 letter sent to the
governor of Michigan that foreshadowed the coming Civil War:
"Without a little blood-letting this Union will not, in
my estimation, be worth a rush."

But he is evidently considered less noteworthy than Lewis
Cass, the territorial governor, U.S. senator and secretary
of war honored with Michigan's other statue.

Martin Allen, chairman emeritus of the Gerald R. Ford
Foundation, estimated the cost of the statue and moving the
11,000-pound Chandler statue at $250,000 or more. Allen said
the foundation is ready to act as soon as legislators
approve it.

"We will create a commission as soon as that happens
and we will raise the money when that happens," he
said.

An 1864 law allowed states to erect statues of two people
notable to its history, filling the Capitol Building with
figures famous to that era but less than household names
today.

After complaints from Kansas lawmakers, Congress amended the
rules several years ago to allow states to replace their
statues. Kansas went first, replacing a now-obscure former
governor, George Washington Glick, with Dwight D.
Eisenhower.

California is booting out Unitarian minister Thomas Starr
King and replacing him with a statue of Ronald Reagan.
Alabama is substituting Helen Keller for congressman,
educator and Confederate Gen. Jabez Curry.

The Chandler statue resides in a hallway of the Capitol
Building. The Reagan and Ford statues will be placed in the
Rotunda, where the bronze Eisenhower figure already resides.

Allen believes Chandler's place in history will be
well-served by the move, most likely to Lansing or Detroit.

"This statue being moved will probably be more
noticeable in Michigan than it was in Washington," he
said.